Fox News blames live airing of suicide on "severe human error"

The coverage of the Friday incident, which sparked outrageon social media and a quick on-air apology by anchor ShepardSmith, showed a man stumbling from an allegedly stolen car intothe desert near Phoenix on Friday.

As a camera in a helicopter provided live coverage, the manstopped a short distance away, pulled the trigger of a gunpointed to the right side of his head and crumpled face-forwardinto the ground.

"We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident byputting the helicopter pictures on a five-second delay," saidMichael Clemente, Fox's executive vice president for newseditorial.

"Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severehuman error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw onthe screen," he said in a statement.

A Phoenix police spokesman confirmed the man, whoauthorities said fired at officers and a police helicopter atone point during the pursuit, died at the scene from aself-inflicted gunshot wound.